At last, a gang of students from the University
of Queensland have formed together into
network of spirited people who are willing to make cross cultural connections
in an attempt to face some of the health issues (and all those issues intimately
related to health) experienced by the Indigenous peoples of Queensland
and Australia.

The gang is made up of students from two groups:

BAppHSci (Indigenous Primary Health Care) - a
three year degree program incorporated into the Department of Tropical
Health (co-ordinated through the Indigenous Health Program) and;

Bachelor Medicine/Surgery students - which includes
student from the current six year degree program and will also include
those from the soon to be implimented 4 year graduate medical course (1997).
Both degrees being offerred through the Faculty of Medicine.

Initially our aim was to encourage and facilitate
the exchange of cultural information between indigenous and non-indigenous
peoples in order to improve relationships through a process of greater
understanding and vicarious learning. But as you could well imagine, our
once naive goals have blossomed into a garden of opportunity, initiatives
and future plans and aspirations. Before, we offer you some insight into
what we are about and where we plan to go, let us tell you about our short
history from the perspective of a fifth year medical student.

As our archaic medical curriculum currently
stands, we are allotted a gracious 90 minutes to Aboriginal and Torres
Straight Islander health. That is 90 minutes out of 6 years, the training
required to become a medical doctor. This lecture was given by the enthusiastic
and inspiring Cindy Shannon, Director of the Indigenous Health Program
(IHP). Terms such as Aboriginal Health Worker were completely foreign,
and the statistics of morbidity and mortality frightening. The timing was
uncanny, as one of the students had just recently returned from the Far
North Queensland where he had visited several Aboriginal communities around
Cairns. Not only was he captivated by this culture but he was disturbed
by the state of health, and was intrigued and dumbfounded as to why these
issues had not been addressed in classes. From this he and Cindy were able
to meet, organise group meetings with the Aboriginal and Islander students
from the IHP degree program, and create the beginnings of an exciting and
prominent network.

Currently, we are growing stronger and larger
by the day. We are fortunate to be able to use the Indigenous
Health Program as our correspondence address. We have formed an executive
and a 14 member steering committee, made up of representatives from all
years of medicine and IHP.